I love nachos and I’m pretty sure the whole world loves nachos too. Case in point: my dad, who makes it a point to only consume Asian food, loves nachos. I introduced them to him many, many years ago on a family cabin trip. Stuck by a lake with no means of other entertainment or Asian food, my family spent 3 days playing cards and pigging out on nachos. It was fantastic.

I thought everyone knew how to make nachos, but it turns out to be untrue. We had a movie night on Sunday and a quick poll revealed that out of the four of us, I was the only nacho ninja. As I layered spicy sriracha beef, cheddar cheese, and jalapenos, there were questions about the microwave, soggy chips and cheese whiz.

Everyone should know how to make nachos! They’re simple, easy and delicious. The key to good nachos is layering. It’s a travesty when you reach into a plate of nachos and pick up a plain chip. That should never, ever happen. In fact, if I’m making nachos for myself I often layer each chip perfectly. Unfortunately, that method is a little obsessive and isn’t really helpful when you have hungry people looking forward to nacho-goodness.

These nachos were the perfect accompaniment to a certain zombie block buster that just came out on DVD. I don’t want to give anything away, but the nachos, not the movie ended up being the highlight of my evening. The sriracha beef was spicy and addictive, the cheese deliciously gooey, and the cilantro fresh and bright.

i am spicy, i am addictive: i am sriracha beef nachos!

Sriracha Beef Nachos

serves 4-6

SRIRACHA BEEF

oil

1 small onion, diced

2 small shallots, diced

2 cloves of garlic, minced

1 lb lean ground beef

1/3 cup sriracha

2 tablespoons soy sauce

NACHOS

1 14 ounce bag of your favourite tortilla chips

1 cup sliced green onions

3 jalapeños, sliced

1 red pepper, diced

1 1/2 cups grated cheddar

1 1/2 cups grated mozzarella

1 cup roughly chopped cilantro

sour cream, salsa and guacamole, if desired

Preheat the oven to 400°F. Line a baking sheet with foil or parchment paper.

In a skillet over medium-high, heat up a bit of oil. Add the onion and shallots and cook until translucent. Add the garlic and cook for another 2 minutes. Add the beef and brown. Drain off the fat and stir in the sriracha and soy sauce.

Place a single layer of chips on your foil-lined baking sheet. Sprinkle on some sriracha beef, green onions, jalapeños, red pepper, cheddar and mozzarella. Repeat until all of your ingredients are gone.

Bake for 5-7 minutes, or until the cheese is gooey and melted. Top with the cilantro and enjoy immediately with sour cream, salsa and guacamole if desired.

I loved this recipe! i wanted to do nachos but didnt know if it would be enough for dinner sooooo i made this into a pizza! I got dough from trader joes and used pizza sauce and mozarella cheese. I used ground turkey instead of beef as well. So really it was ground turkey with siracha, garlic, cilantro and jalapenos. I also added an egg on top towards the end of the baking because i like eggs and I knew it would go well with the combination. And it was so delicious, I was very surprised at how well it turned out with pizza. So I encourage anyone to try it with pizza and eggs!